Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency with effect from Friday midnight, the presidential media division said.

The emergency declaration gives the police and the security forces the power to arbitrarily arrest and detain people.

Gotabaya’s decision was to ensure public security and maintain essential services to ensure a smooth functioning of the country, the presidential media division said.

The decision came amidst weeks of public protests demanding the resignation of the President and the government.

On Friday, Sri Lankan student activists warned that they will lay a siege on parliament as trade unions launched a crippling island-wide strike to demand Gotabaya and his government’s resignation over their inability to tackle the economic meltdown which has caused unprecedented hardships for the public.

Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis in history with the shortage of essentials, and power outages caused by a severe forex crisis.

Gotabaya had declared an emergency on April 1 also after a mass protest opposite his private residence. He had revoked it on April 5.

Since April 9, the protesters have been staying near the presidential secretariat in the “Gotabaya Go home village” and since April 26 the “Mynah go home village” or “Mahinda Go Home Village”.

Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948.

The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods

and fuel — leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

Despite mounting pressure, Goatabaya and his elder brother and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have refused to quit.

On Thursday, they won a key election in parliament when their candidate convincingly won the race for the post of deputy Speaker.